HRI posts positive financial figures for first time in five years
Exceptional bloodstock sales, with a rise of €13m in Ireland and an estimated €112m from auctions in Britain and France, increased the value of Irish foals from €146.9m to 156.5m in 2011.
“Maybe it’s bottomed out,” said Kavanagh.
“Everyone felt the fall was coming but no one knew it would happen so quickly. In two or three years our foal numbers dropped from 12,000 to 7,000. We’re now almost at a stage where supply has reached demand so we’re at a better place.”
Kavanagh feels the industry’s funding must be maintained though and pointed to the benefits of international co-mingling deals on the Tote. These allow overseas operators offer access to Irish Tote pools and have accounted for a €5.2m rise in betting income on the Tote.
“The horse industry can attract foreign money into the country. We have seen this in last few years that the growth is coming from overseas.
“The industry can draw overseas money and create jobs in rural areas where the opportunities are scarce.
“There are two or three targets for 2012. We want to continue where we are going. Racing has suffered considerably. Last year there were signs of growth and we want to expand that.
“The government is having a detailed look at the way we are funded and are looking at bringing in a betting tax to capture online and foreign betting.
“If that can assist and continue to grow the industry it will be a great help.”
To do that though he is confident the current level of income from overseas prize money will continue to grow. In 2010 Irish race horses won €8.52m but that jumped to €13m last year.
“Last year was exceptional. We had a record Cheltenham.
“It’d be nice to think we could do that every year. Our trainers are renowned for travelling. Aidan O’Brien went to America last year and won a couple of Breeders Cup race and a few others.
“But while the figure was high last year there is no reason to feel standards will change. We recently received figures which showed there were six Irish two-year-old population ranked in the world’s top ten. We need to work on it, invest and keep the quality here in Ireland.”
Those World Thoroughbred Rankings also showed that four of the top 30 two-year-olds in the world in 2011 were Irish-trained. That may be a reason for the increase in racecourse attendances which were up by 40,000 at 1.24m compared to 1.20m in 2010.
“Race courses did a lot during the year and a lot of promotions. The Tote and bookmakers say they are issuing same number of tickets as previous years but the value has fallen. It’s good that the footfall has held up.
“We’ve also noticed a positive side effect from the recession. A lot of people went to the races over Christmas whereas previously they might have gone skiing or to the sun.”
However it was not all good news, the average horses in training fell by 12.8% and on-course bookmakers reported a decline of 9.2% in money spent.
While the number of new owners was maintained the total number of owners fell by 8.3% to 4,278 and the total prize money fell by eu €44.4m.
